Janet Yellen's prospects for becoming the first female head of the US Federal Reserve will be put to the vote on Thursday.

The US Senate Banking committee will meet at 10am Eastern Time (3pm GMT) on Thursday to vote on whether to send Ms Yellen's nomination to the full Senate for consideration, it said in a statement on Monday.

Ms Yellen is lined up to replace Ben Bernanke in January, and become the first woman ever to take the helm of the world’s largest central bank, provided the Senate confirms her in the post as expected.

She appeared before the Senate Committee last week, when she told her audience that the US economy is falling “far short” of its potential.

Ms Yellen said the Fed has “more work to do” to boost the weak labour market and economy, in a speech she will deliver to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington today.

“I believe that supporting the recovery today is the surest path to returning to a more normal approach to monetary policy,” she said.

Her appearance in front of the committee last week bolstered expectations America will keep injecting new money into the economy for a considerable time to come.

The 67-year-old, who is currently the Fed’s deputy chairman, is well known for her dovish stance, and a strong advocate of its $85bn-a-month bond-buying scheme designed to prop up the economy.

She was one of the key architects of the Fed’s resolution to keep the taps open on the so-called “quantitative easing” programme, until there was evidence of a sustained improvement in America’s employment situation.

Even so, the dollar fell on speculation the US would keep its QE programme running at full tilt well into 2014.

Ms Yellen has not detailed the Fed’s next move, but her explanation of the central bank’s recent behaviour made her dovish stance very clear nonetheless.

“Inflation has been running below the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2pc and is expected to continue to do so for some time. Unemployment is down from a peak of 10pc, but at 7.3pc in October, it is still too high, reflecting a labour market and economy performing far short of their potential,” she said.

“For these reasons, the Federal Reserve is using its monetary policy tools to promote a more robust recovery. A strong recovery will ultimately enable the Fed to reduce its monetary accommodation and reliance on unconventional policy tools such as asset purchases.”

The Telegraph Investor

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